According to the Associated Press, Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, who produce American Idol, have declined production positions for this year’s Emmy awards. Originally the dynamic duo of talent contests were set to produce this years awards presentation but have now pulled out citing the rigors of their current demands.

Lythgoe and Warwick stated “We realized that we could not devote the creative energy and time necessary to make the Emmys outstanding." I do not think they give themselves enough credit, they have managed to sustain American Idol’s ratings through possibly its worst selection of contestants in history; how hard could it have possibly been to make actually talented people interesting?

The Emmy Academy is desperate to reinvent the ceremony after last years famous snub of many hit shows. The Emmy governors essentially instituted a voting process that was supposed to give smaller shows on smaller networks an opportunity for recognition. Previously, Academy members were given ballots pre-loaded with the top five shows by statistics.

In 2006 the voting procedure was changed so that the academy would return a top fifteen, and nominees would be chosen by a panel. When high profile productions such as LOST failed to score even nominations in key categories, fans cried foul. ABC vengefully scheduled a Pirates of the Caribbean film up against the awards ceremony in retaliation for its top shows being snubbed and caused the ceremony to draw its worst ratings ever. It has not been announced whether or not the voting process will be reformed, but in the wake of almost universal condemnation from the industry, it is hard to imagine that it will not be.

Nigel Lythgoe, meanwhile, will be preparing to get back ‘in front’ of the camera this summer as one of the judges for “So you Think you can Dance,” which he also co-created.